Sapsuckers set new ABA Big Day record

Team Sapsucker members Marshall Iliff, left, and team leader Chris Wood, both bird specialists from Cornell University's Lab of Ornithology, run with high-powered spotting scopes down a road that bisects a portion of Crystal Lake, N.J., during New Jersey Audubon's annual World Series of Birding, Saturday, May 9, 2009. The competitive fundraising event asks birders to identify as many species as they can by sight or sound in a 24-hour period. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) WireSelects: 05/10/09

by TomMckinney on April 25, 2011 · 4 comments

in Birding North America

Last week at Neal’s Lodge I met Team Sapsucker, a group of six birders from the Cornell Lab who were recce-ing the area whilst preparing to break the North American record for the most number of species in 24 hours. The record to beat was 260 species set in April 2008 and based on a route beginning in the Texan Hill Country and finishing up in the Corpus Christi area, a route which the Sapsuckers were roughly following with some alterations.

Well on Friday the Sapsuckers set a new incredible ABA record with 264 species in an exhausting marathon of birding which will probably shave ten years off their life expectancy, and provided confirmation that no matter where you go in the world, we birders all share one similar characteristic: we’re all mental!

You can watch a video about the Big(gest) Day HERE, and further updates including the full list will be uploaded HERE soon.

So a huge round of virtual applause to Chris, Brian, Andrew, Jessie, Marshall and Tim! Three cheers, beers all round, chuck a Spanish donkey off a tower etc… And I look forward to meeting you again at this year’s Birdfair.

Elsewhere another massive competition is about to kick off, namely my Twitter account. I now have a staggeringly tepid 193 followers on Twitter – quite an incredibly poor achievement for two years of Twittererering. But this is the BIG NEWS – follow me today, and if you’re my 200th follower then you’ll win a massive prize courtesy of my Uncle Leonard. Believe me it’s worth it. You don’t know what you’re missing. Here’s some of my recent “hilariously witty” and “profound” tweets:

Columbo’s on ITV at 1.30 today

*Emergency* Can’t find a frying pan. Does anyone know if you can cook pancakes with an exhumed dead relative instead?

Should I be worried that I’ve just ejaculated a pencil sharpener?

Isn’t the internet great?

Top Photo: Kathy Willens/AP Photo featuring Team Sapsucker members Marshall Iliff, left, and team leader Chris Wood on a Big Day in New Jersey 2009. Photo from NJ.com.

Random Posts:


Similar Posts:

    Gunnar:ABA gear guide: Another reason to become an ABA member What a brilliant idea. To collect a number birding gadget rev
    Category:Birding North America

    TomMckinney:Texas April 2011 – a trip report (of sorts): Synopsis: a tale of two birdspotters in a foreign land; this is part one of their story in which dry
    Category:Birding North America

    TomMckinney:You say Laz-you-lie, I say La-zoo-lee, Let’s call the whole thing off!: Birding in Texas … meaningless lists of common birds … idiot humour that’s not very funny but is
    Category:Birding North America

    TomMckinney:Texas Mission Accomplished: Mission accomplished. Our trip up to Edward’s Plateau has secured us nutbag-ripping views of both Bl
    Category:Birding North America

    TomMckinney:A letter from America: So I’m lying in bed in Brownsville, Texas, having just travelled down to the Rio Grande from High Is
    Category:Birding North America

Tagged as: 264, ABA, Cornell, Corpus Christi, hill country, record breaking big day, team sapsucker, tom mckinney

Article by Tom Mckinney

Tom McKinney has been birding for over 20 years and has birded on every continent, other than the continents he's not yet been to. He is famed for having found Britain's first Gray's Grasshopper Warbler and then waking up and realising it had all been a beautiful, beautiful dream. When not birding he enjoys going to Ladbrokes and writing short biographical entries about himself in a 3rd person voice.

Tom has written 49 awesome articles for us.

Subscribe Now

If you enjoyed this post, you will definitely enjoy our others. Subscribe to the feed to get instantly updated for those awesome posts soon to come.

BirdingBlogs.com gives you top birding content every day!

  • Chatterbirds

    Amazing feat! I honestly was not sure if they were going to beat the ABA record.

  • http://twitter.com/birdoculars Jeff Jones

    Way to go Team Sapsucker! That is an incredible number of species in one day. I found their preparation to be very interesting too. A well-oiled machine for sure.

  • yah, you betcha

    how many IBWOs did they see?

  • Charlie

    Just checked and your Twitter account has hit 203! 10 new followers in a week!! By the end of the year you’ll have – er, you know, er…I’m just crap at maths – er, probably a lot more anyway. The internet rules and don’t you forget it. (Oh, and if anyone wants to follow me I’m at charliemoores. Thanks)

Previous post:

Next post: